Jump to content

Menu

Helping a kid "catch up" and improve skills, advice please...


Recommended Posts

To keep a long story short, I am taking in one of my nieces.  She just turned 15 and is headed into 10th grade.  Last year she got a D in Algebra 1.  The school she will be going to uses Saxon and I gave her the placement test for 1/2 and she bombed it.  The school is offering a free tutor over the summer. and the fist time she went, the tutor said that she is struggling with basic math computation.  I also know her reading, grammar,  and spelling are all atrocious.  I need a plan for the summer.  I have Saxon 1/2 and Algebra 1.  I don't have a lot of extra money to invest in curricula that will only be used for summer.  I was thinking of having her do silent reading, read aloud, and then just have her do dictation, copywork, and narration.  I think the dictation/copywork/narration would help with all of the LA issues.  I am not deceived that I can "fix it" all ove the summer.  I just want to help her.  She will be going to a private school that is willing to work with her on math, but would like to see her put some effort into helping herself.

 

Ideas and suggestions welcomed.  Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would try Hands on Equations which is about $30. More textbooks aren't necessarily the answer. Do something fun that makes sense to her and reteaches the material in a different way. Another idea would be to get the Danica McKellar books. She's the author of "Math Doesn't Suck" that's geared to girls. I believe the Algebra one is called "Hot X".

 

Good luck!

 

P.S. Here's a HOE review from my blog. I'm not affiliated with them at all, I'm just a fan:

http://teachingmybabytoread.com/math/hands-on-equations-review

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An idea- khan has a "dashboard" where the child takes kind of a pretest and then they set up excercises for them to work on in math (we do it under "world of math' instead of any grade level).  My ds likes earning the badges and points and it seems ok for summer work.  I think you can set up what they need to work on also if you want to do it that way, but it sounds like she may need some basics first.

 

HOE is a lot of fun!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds like an underlying LD going on. It would be more helpful to know what her "glitch" is in order to more effectively remediate. For example, she may have a working memory issue with either an Auditory and/or visual processing disorder. If she is having computation issues, I would target that first with workbooks like Times Tales that 'emotionally' set the facts in her brain so that recall is not so strenuous. Follow up with light drill. In the meantime, when working through math problems and application work, give her a calculator. See whether she can approach the problem correctly and do the algorithm properly with a calculator.  If this support is helpful, it may mean that she is suffering from a sort of math performance anxiety due to her inability to recall facts.   

 

What is her reading level like...is she able to decode multisyllabic words? Is it a decoding and comprehension issue? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I agree wholeheartedly that she needs to be tested if she is struggling that much.  There could be many underlying LD's and without testing it could be virtually impossible to truly understand what is causing the difficulty and how to address it.  Testing could give a ton of answers on what the underlying issues are and how to target those so that she can make genuine progress.  It could also show any underlying strengths that are being masked by the issues, strengths that could, if tapped properly, help her over these hurdles and also help with future job prospects.

 

I waited to test long past the time when I should have.  I regret it.  It netted us so many answers and really helped us get on a much better path.  

 

Is there any way to get a neuro-psych evaluation?  Is there a Scottish Rite center near you that could at least do a cursory assessment?

 

You might read The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide to see if anything in there speaks to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...